Kenneth Williams' Autobiography : Just Williams Click cover to BUY |
Although, at first, Kenneth Williams strove to become a serious stage actor, he became best known for camping it up in the Carry Ons. But despite appearing in 26 of them, Williams thought most of the films were crap. "The scripts are schoolboy scatology …the most depressing sort of would-be funny rubbish."
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Williams' distinctive voice and imitative talents also made him a natural radio star. His broadcasting break came in the 50s when he was asked to appear in Hancock's Half Hour. But Hancock grew tired of Williams' crude characterisations, and it was in the radio series Round The Horne that Williams really felt at home and made himself a name. In it he played one half of the hilarious Julian and Sandy - a pair of outrageously camp queens.
But Williams found nothing humorous about his own homosexuality. An admired diarist, Williams kept a journal that spanned 43 years. In them, the man with the tortured tonsils bares a tortured soul. Living in an era that instilled self-loathing, Williams thought homosexual promiscuity "dangerous and wrong". Describing his tendencies as "the preponderant sexual problem", he once wrote: "One day I think its overcome, & then the sight of a navvy working in the street, stripped to the waist, and gold tanned flesh and muscles & I am back in square one. Full of guilt and shame." Resentful of his sexuality, Williams distanced himself from the gay scene, choosing solitude and celibacy instead. Living in surroundings as sparse as his love life, Williams' loneliness exacerbated his feelings of hopelessness. Tormented by bad health and tired of his "monotonous existence", the physical and mental pain eventually became too much to handle. His last diary entry (dated April 14 1988) reads: "Had meal with Lou at 5.30. Saw the News, watched the dreary saga of murder and mayhem. By 6.30 pain in the back was pulsating as it's never done before … so this, plus the stomach trouble combines to torture me - oh - what's the bloody point?" Kenneth Williams was found dead the next day. He had overdosed on a secret stockpile of barbiturates. He was 62. The coroner recorded an open verdict. You can read more about Kenneth Williams on his unofficial fan website: www.kennethwilliams.org.uk |
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